Hi Mollyjay, did you ever manage to figure this out? I’m in a similar learning curve and feel like I’m hitting a bunch of brick walls.

Thank you so much for the reply … if I can impose just a bit further, let me rephrase this to see if I understand what you’re saying?

So if I see, on the Qantas site, a Qantas award flight (i.e., a flight operated by Qantas, say, between the U.S. and Australia, on which “award seats” are available in one or more classes) …

… and the entire flight is operated only by Qantas, a partner of Alaska Air (so that it meets the rule in (3)) …

.. then, since “continental U.S. to Australia” has a published award price on Alaska (i.e., Alaska’s “award mileage charts” indicate that coach, business, or first-class tickets between these two places cost X number of miles, depending on which Alaska partner I fly) …

… I *should* be able to call Alaska Air to book a ticket for the “award space” I see on that Qantas flight on the Qantas site, even though I’m unable to turn it up in a search on Alaska’s own site?

That is, the Alaska mileage plan booking agent will be able to see the available Qantas award space and let me redeem miles for it, even though it doesn’t show up in an “available award” search on Alaska’s site when I look for it there?

(1) The main reason for searching on the Qantas website is because the Alaska Airlines website does not display these awards. So going back to search for the same flight on AlaskaAir.com will return no results. You need to call Alaska Airlines to book the ticket. An example is Cathay Pacific. You will never see a Cathay Pacific flight on the Alaska Airlines website, even though you can book these flights if you call in.

(2) Not all Qantas partners are Alaska Airlines partners. You need to confirm that the flight you find is operated by an airline that is a partner of both loyalty programs.

(3) Award prices and rules are different between carriers. Qantas and Alaska Airlines will likely charge different prices for the same ticket. They will also have different rules on combining multiple flights in a single ticket. For example, Qantas permits you to combine an unlimited number of different carriers. Alaska only allows you to choose a single partner, plus its own flights (e.g., Qantas + Alaska Airlines, or Qantas + American Airlines, but not Qantas + American + Alaska).

What am I doing wrong? It feels as if there’s some vital, critical step or reality that all writers of articles like this simply assume I already understand.

For example, are all “award travel” seats shown on the Qantas site available to me as an Alaska Air (partner) member? And if not, how will searching for award travel on the Qantas site be of any benefit to me as an Alaska Air mileage plan member? (As in, how would I be able to tell which listed awards would actually apply to me?)

It sounded like you were having trouble finding award space on Alaska Airlines. AS is the only partner airline that flies between SFO and KOA. If that’s the flight you want, you won’t find it on the BA website. Even if you see Alaska Airlines award space on the American website, it will not appear on the BA website. You’ll need to call BA to book using Avios, which is what I said in my first reply.

If your problem is that you can’t find ANY flight on ANY airline on ANY date, then there’s a more serious problem. I don’t know what that issue is, and you may get more help calling BA for technical support.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/contact-executive-club/public/en_gb/About_Country=GB

The instructions in this post should make it clear how to begin a search. Not every search will have results because award space is limited. You may need to try looking for a different flight on a different date.

The article is called “How to find award space using the BA website.” It says “In particular, the British Airways website shows more comprehensive award availability on oneworld members.”

I said I can never find anything on the BA website, even American space.

That link you gave me is about searching Alaska award space and says “You’ll need to search somewhere else — such as the British Airways website — to find availability and then call Alaska to book.” But you’re saying BA doesn’t display Alaska.

This is starting to make me a bit crazy, everyone saying different things.

The British Airways website doesn’t display Alaska Airlines award space. You should search for that on the Alaska Airlines or American Airlines websites. Then you can call British Airways and ask them to book it. They’ll waive the call center fee since there’s no online option. From the post:

“British Airways is a partner with two U.S. carriers, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. A domestic route on either airline is exactly the sort likely to fit the two criteria for a good Avios redemption. Just remember that Alaska Airlines award space isn’t shown on the British Airways website, so you’ll need to search elsewhere and call in to book using Avios.”

Note that Alaska has two different prices that show up in the “lowest” award category, and only the cheaper of these two is available to partners. That’s one reason to look on American’s website. It will only show the cheaper price, so the award space that American Airlines website displays should match what the BA telephone agent can see.

Thanks for the correction.

Great Post, Scott!!!!

I did not find a workaround. It is tedious because you need to drill in just to find out the seats are available but on a different flight. The BA site seems to show large amount of phantom space (at least for Cathay) while Quantas seems to be more accurate.

Not that I am familiar with.

… And QF.

I had similar issues while trying to sign up for the Qantas FF. One thing that seems to happen, as mentioned in the article, is that fields that you have completed go empty for some reason and the “Join For Free” button fails. The email field even insists that the Case be the same in the two fields or else it will reject. After about 5 rejections, the “Join” button was no longer active, so I switched to a different browser, was very diligent about following their absurd rules to fill out each field and was able to make it work. Took too much time but I did get it done.

It might be obvious, but did you update your country of residence on the form?